http://education.yahoo.com/reference/di ... y/paradigmWorth reading both the definitions and the note. I always tended to use the short i, rather than the preferred long i. With the speed of scientific advancement, the paradigm shift is becoming business as usual. All of a sudden with the discovery of dark matter and dark energy, we enter a major, major shift. Anywhere from 70-90% of the cosmos, or at least the universe, has yet to be discovered.

The current clamor from many American Catholics for allowing contraception, women and married priests would require an earthquake of a paradigm shift. Such a ruling would require the Pope to state or imply that supposedly infallible truths are no longer so. On the other hand, quitting smoking for many is also earthshaking. Of course, so is getting married or having your first baby.

It's important to recognize the hidden paradigms underlying our assumptions. Note that in Exodus, the Lord commands Moses to build the tabernacle in great detail. Later the book describes the building of the tabernacle almost verbatim. Nowhere does Exodus describe what it looked like as the Greeks would. Hebrew is built from verbs and is action-oriented, not visual.

I frequently ponder our assumptions, almost like the air we breathe, but accept without inquiry.

"I frequently ponder our assumptions, almost like the air we breathe, but accept without inquiry."

Well put, Perry. For example, assumptions like the Universe is an orderly place; natural events have causes; time and space are separate entities; the same laws govern the macrocosm and the microcosm; people everywhere naturally yearn to be free. Revolutions (aka "paradigm shifts") occur when--as they often do--our assumptions turn out to be false.

Even the term "false" assumes a bivalent paradigm. If the occasion is fitting, when people tell me they see things as either black or white, I remind them there is a technicolor world out there. Jeremy Bentham created a calculus of values. And when Cartesian geometry was "overturned," it did and still remained valid in many, if not most, earthbound situations.

As a red neck, my first take on paradigm was that it meant two shovels. After all, paradox means two doctors.

Being an educated red neck, when I was hit with it at work I discovered it meant, "Forget whatever you think you know. It’s a whole nother world out there. We have had a paradigm shift. You thought you were an engineer but now you are an entrepreneur. You have to think outside the box, be innovative, and invoke synergism. AND we are going to put a lot more on your plate…” Somehow I just came to hate the word and wish I were a linguist or even a school band director. Non-engineers don’t have those kinds of problems, do they?

Noam Chomsky, the greatest linguist of the 20th century, was the person who moved Kuhn to write his book Paradigm Shift, which started the whole conversation. Chomsky shifted all the linguistic paradigms.

But this is not the forum for introducing new words. This thread really should be in "Good Word Suggestions". Does anyone mind if I move it there? Was it meant as a suggestion? I will be happy to show you what I can do with the word next month.